To ice skate or watch a movie? …….Chorlton in 1914

Now this is a picture of our own ice rink, here in Chorlton.

The Chorlton Ice Skating Rink, 1907

It was located on the corner of Longford Road and Oswald Road and is a place I have long been fascinated by and have written about. *

During the early decades of the last century ice skating was a popular past time and newspapers like the Manchester Guardian regularly reported on just when it would be possible to glide and slide on the ice and where across the city there were sites available.

In the December of 1908 the Manchester Guardian announced “There was skating in Manchester yesterday at Broughton Park” and went on to list alternatives at "Drinkwater Park, Bell Vue, Withington and Chorlton, along with Lindow Common near Wilmslow and Buxton where “there was good ice [as well as] several exposed waters on the Derbyshire side. **

Skating on the Meadows, 1914

Two years later the same newspaper reported that “The skaters were out betimes yesterday.  

The 14 degrees Fahrenheit of the night put the finishing touch on the Manchester waters and made the ice come almost up to the advertisement that recommended it ‘perfect ice’ and ‘safety guaranteed’…… with no sheet of water of any size missing from the list.  Chorlton Meadows, Sale, Belle Vue, Broughton and Drinkwater Water parks, all frozen.  

In prices one may choose between the humble ‘tuppence of Chorlton to exalted two shillings of Broughton Park, but it is only fair to Broughton to add that, in the event of the ice holding, the 2s ticket lasts the week out”.***

And the prices tell us all we need to know about skating on the Meadows, which was the preserve of the tenant farmers who rented land close to the Mersey.

But of course, outside skating is determined by the vagaries of the weather, and even in a time which was perhaps seasonally colder than today the window was short.

Manchester Ice Palace, 1986

Which led to the construction of indoor stadiums, of which the first in the City was the Manchester Ice Palace on Derby Street in Cheetham.  

It opened in the October of 1910 and was the largest indoor rink in Britain with a capacity of 2000, seated and standing.****

All of which is fine but runs into the buffers when matched against our own Chorlton Skating Rink which seems to have dated from sometime after 1905.  

The building does not appear on the OS map of 1907 which was a surveyed two years earlier but is referred to by a “H” who sent a picture postcard of the rink on January 17th 1907 to Albert, adding that  “This is a photo of Chorlton’s Skating Rink.  I had a dust on it on New Year’s Day and it is OK”.

The Chorlton Ice Skating Rink, 1907, painted in 1946

Which seems to be confirmed by a local artist who painted the building in 1946 from another picture postcard dated 1906.

That it was well established by 1909 is further confirmed  by listings in the newspapers advertising skating shows and hockey matches between Chorlton and rival teams.

So, on October 20th of that year, for the price of 6d you could have seen “Professor Hurst the Great Trick Skater” and the following night cheered on Chorlton as it played Ashton. 

At present the early business history of the place is fragmentary.

I know that in 1910 it is referred to as the Chorlton Rinkeries when it was the venue for the Chorlton-cum-Hardy Amateur Gardeners’ Society which held it annual show there on August 13th, but regularly was also described as the Chorlton Ice Rink.

On the Meadows, 1914

The Chorlton-cum-Hardy Ice-Skating Company only came into existence sometime between 1910 and 1911, but in 1912 A George Alfred Barker “applied for the transfer to himself of the music and dancing license of the Skating Rink, Oswald Road”.

All of which suggests that our building was branching out into new areas of entertainment, a journey which was to end in it showing films.  

In 1914 it was listed as the Longford Picturedrome in the Kinematograph Year Book Program Diary and Directory.  

It could seat 600 and its proprietor was a James Morland. Sadly that is all we have and the listing did manage to substitute Street for road in the address. 

And in the same way George Alfred Barker is little more than a name.  I know he was born in 1864, lived with his wife on Hampton Road from at least 1901 and described himself as a “Bank Clerk”.

I have yet to find out if he was a director of the company or if he was involved when the company was wound up in 1916.

What we do know is that the building went up for sale by auction in the February of the previous year.  It was described as “Timber built SKATING Rink.  The building is substantially built, lofty, and well lighted, stands on a sound brick foundation, and is built entirely of well-seasoned timber, the beams being the best Belfast trusses.  It is fitted throughout heating apparatus, electric light fittings, excellent maple floor, ante rooms, cloakrooms, lavatories, café, exit doors, and passages each side 10ft wide.  Frontage of 115 ft to Longford Road, and 320ft. to Hartley and Oswald Roads.  The site contains 5,951 square yards or thereabouts, and is held on a yearly tenancy expiring June 1915, at a rental of £130, which can either be terminated or renewed”.*****

The Ice Rink, 1907

There was an expectation that it might appeal to “Cinema and Circus Proprietors, Entertainers, and others”.

But it seems its days as a centre of entertainment were over, and by 1935  the site was filling up with houses, which are still there today.

Just why it failed is unclear.  Perhaps the Great War had a part to play or maybe its rival the Chorlton Pavilion on Wilbraham Road proved a popular venue.  

It had started as a Variety Hall and Gardens, but also became a cinema and in 1912 underwent alterations. 

Chorlton Pavilion and Winter Gardens, circa 1906

Or our cinema audiences might have preferred the purpose built Palais de Luxe Picture House which opened in 1914 and was conveniently sited close to the new Chorlton Tram Terminus.

And the years just before and after the Great War were a time of cinema mania.

The Manchester Guardian in 1919 wrote that "No form of indoor amusement or recreation can show such a phenomenal growth as the kinema, [adding] that some twenty million people in the United Kingdom visit the moving picture show once a month .... and in Manchester despite building difficulties cinemas new picture houses are being opened".*****

The jury is out, but I am sure I will return to our skating Rink and Picturedrome.

The Palais De Luxe cinema, circa 1928

Leaving me just to thank Richard Bond and Chris Griffith who provided some additional research.

Location; Chorlton

Pictures; The Chorlton Ice Rink, 1907 from the collection of Chris Griffiths,  The Manchester Ice Palace, 1986, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, Skating on Chorlton Meadows from the Manchester Courier, 1914, “Chorlton Skating Rink (later the Picturedrome” J Montgomery, 1946 m80132, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass Chorlton Pavilion and Winter Gardens, circa 1906, from the Lloyd Collection, and the Palais De Luxe cinema, circa 1928, Charles Ireland, GD10-07-04-6-13-01 courtesy of East Dunbartonshire Archives 

*Chorlton and Ice Skating, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Chorlton%20and%20ice%20skating

** Skating in Manchester, Manchester Guardian December 29, 1908

***Manchester Waters Busy with Skaters, Manchester Guardian, January 28, 1910

****Ice Palace Derby Street Cheetham Manchester, Architects of Greater Manchester 1800-1940, https://manchestervictorianarchitects.org.uk/index.php/buildings/ice-palace-derby-street-cheetham-manchester

*****Sales by Auction, Manchester Guardian, February 6, 1915

******Local Amusements, Manchester Guardian, December 8th, 1919

When you could skate on Oswald Road .................The Chorlton-cum-Hardy Ice Skating Company

Now I have a problem with this picture.

It was painted by the local artist J.Montgomery.

I say local because almost his entire collection of paintings feature Chorlton or Whalley Range. But that is all we know about him.  Despite attempts to find out more he remains an elusive character.*

And this pretty much extends to his pictures as well.  Most seem to have been painted from postcards and photographs dating to around the first half of the 19th century and many of these are no longer available.

Which brings me to this painting which is dated 1964 but is of The Chorlton Skating Ring in 1906.

And there is the first problem.  The Chorlton-cum-Hardy Ice Skating Company only came into existence sometime between 1910 and 1911.  It does not appear on either the OS map for 1907 or in Harry Kemp’s Chorlton Almanack for 1910 but is listed in the street directory for the following year.

The population of Chorlton had grown rapidly and with it a demand for more and varied leisure opportunities.  That same 1911 Almanack listed 47 different political, cultural and sporting associations and clubs across the old township.

Our skating ring was situated on Oswald Road.

The site takes in the two semidetached houses on Longford and another six running down Oswald.

These houses are of a similar design and  were built sometime after 1945 by the same builder/developer.

Now I can be fairly precise because our skating company had but a short life.  It was wound up in the summer of 1916 which may put the development a little later and by 1933 the site was again open land.

It is not easy to get the scale of the building from Montgomery’s picture but we do seem to be dealing with a big site.  And something of the size  is possible to judge by walking along Oswald Road today.  It was bounded on the south by Hartley Road extended along Longford to its junction with Oswald Road and down Oswald to a point opposite where Oswald Lane starts.

If Montgomery’s painting is anything to go by it was quite impressive with a large painted gable end, stretching back some distance and would have been ideal as a theatre or cinema.  And here is our second mystery, because the title refers to “Chorlton Skating Ring later The Picturedrome.”

This would suggest it became a picture house but the earliest recorded cinema is the Pavilion on the corner of Wilbraham and Buckingham Roads which was opened as a variety hall around 1904 and was showing films by 1910 if not a little before.

Of course there was nothing stopping the Chorlton-cum-Hardy Ice Skating Company showing films, after all many of our early picture houses remained theatres.  The Pavilion or as it became known,  the Chorlton Theatre and Winter Gardens were booking variety acts in the summer of 1910 while also showing movies.

I can at present only hazard a guess for its short life.  The Great War may have pushed it over the brink, but there may have been other reasons.  Many especially in the village might have preferred to venture for free onto the meadows when they iced over and there may equally have been stiff competition as a cinema not only from the Pavilion but after 1914 from the purpose built Palais de Luxe on Barlow Moor Road close to the tram terminus.

I might be able to find out a little more by trawling the street directories for the years after 1911, and there may somewhere be the lost photograph that Montgomery used, but I think I will leave it there, well for the time being anyway.

But on a positive note, Paul Corris has helped me take the story of the site after the Ice Rink.  In response to the story he posted, "Hi Andrew, I live on Longford in a house the same style as those on the site of the ice rink and mine was built in 1935".

Leaving me just to thank Paul and reflect once again how the story of Chorlton continues to advance with the help of everyone.

* J Montgomery an earlier post http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/who-was-j-montgomery.html

Pictures; Courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council m80132 and detail from the 1907 OS map

The lost photograph ..... the mystery of Chorlton’s Ice Rink ... and the walk through our past on Sunday

Now here is a story which has been a long time in the making.

It concerns our own Chorlton Ice Rink which stood on the corner of Longford and Oswald roads.

On Jan 17 1907, “H” wrote to Albert, that “This is a photo of Chorlton’s Skating Rink.  I had a dust on it on New Year’s Day and it is OK”.

I first came discovered, it when I came across a painting by J Montgomery who painted the place in 1946 from a photograph dated 1906

He referred to it as “Chorlton Skating Rink (later the “Picturedrome”).

But until this week the original photograph was lost, but I rather think this may be the one Mr Montgomery used.

The building belonged to the Chorlton Skating Rink which was wound up as a company in 1916, but its time as a cinema was limited to just Montgomery’s reference to the Picturedrome.

In 1914 it is listed as the Longford Picturedrome seating 600 and its proprietor was a James Morland.

Sadly that is all we have and the listing did manage to substitute Street for road in the address.

There was a Mr Moreland living in Old Trafford just a few years earlier but that is it.

It may be the competition with its close rivals proved too much.
The Chorlton Theatre and Winter Garden had opened in the early years of the 20th century as a variety hall and doubled up as a cinema, while in 1915 a purpose built picture house had opened on Barlow Moor Road.

The combined competition may just have proved too much or it might have been the  war that finished it off.

Either way you can find out lots more on Sunday when we walk our past and call in at the site of the Chorlton’s Ice Rink.

The walk which is part of Chorlton Book Festival, will start from the the Library on Sunday November 18 at 2 pm and take about an hour, after which we will relax in The Edge Theatre, Manchester Road.

Beverley from the library service informs me that “tickets are £7.50 including soup and a roll at the Dressing Room café, The Edge Theatre, Manchester Road, M21 9JG after the walk. 

Booking is essential for this popular event. 

Please visit Chorlton Library or call 0161 227 3700.

Walking Chorlton's Past, Sunday 18 November 2 - 4pm"

Location; Chorlton

Picture: The Chorlton Ice Rink, 1907 from the collection of Chris Griffiths and cover from The Kinematograph Year Book Program Diary and Directory 1914

*Chorlton Book Festival, November 16-24, https://www.chorltonbookfestival.co.uk/